home cooked dinners by the season

Summer Kissed Watermelon Salad

I don’t remember the outcome, but the images from the watermelon eating contest between my older teenage sister and her best friend, are as clear as if it was yesterday. Not the typical something two sixteen-year old girls do, so it made an impression. Hands behind their backs, they plunged their eager faces into the flesh of a freshly split watermelon on the table in front of them. I can still see their watermelon slush splashed faces laughing and spitting seeds out as they ate. To this day, whenever I see a watermelon I think of them.

Summer is the time to use watermelon and cucumbers as salad ingredients. The watermelon gives vibrant color, sweetness and thirst quenching crunch along with the watery crisp cucumber slices. In addition to its nutty flavor contribution, quinoa adds substance and protein. And both the lightly pan-sugared pecans and crumbled goat or feta cheese give tidbits of contrasting sweet and tangy flavor notes. I like using thinly sliced Romaine leaves for the greens, but baby salad leaves work well too. It’s tossed with simple minty vinaigrette made with your choice of balsamic, white or red wine vinegar and olive oil. For those who want to add more protein, there’s the option of adding cooked chicken.

For the vinaigrette, put olive oil, vinegar, mint and garlic in a small jar fitted with a lid and shake or whisk together in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper.

For the pecans, stir together pecans and sugar in a small skillet over medium heat until sugar is melted and lightly crusted on pecans, about 3-5 minutes; remove from heat and turn out onto a baking sheet or wax paper sprayed with vegetable oil and cool to room temperature.

For the 1-1/2 cups cooked quinoa: Stir together ½ cup quinoa with 1-1/2 cups water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover and simmer just until quinoa is tender and water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Transfer cooked quinoa to a baking sheet or tray and spread out to cool to room temperature. Quinoa can be refrigerated until using.

This was great, Linda. We aren’t big on pecans so I left them out- the hallmark of a good recipe is that it didn’t seem like anything was ‘missing’ when I did that. We had it with grilled fish- it was great with that. Thanks for sharing.